Ministerial thoughts

We had so many good thoughts this morning on the texts that I have a hard time picking which to preach.

Glenn said that this week he would begin a 6-week series from Ephesians accompanied by a Bible study. Nice to know the lectionary will be going continua through Ephesians for a while, but I’ll be away a couple of those weeks, and so perhaps a series isn’t for me. He is prompted to do this partly because of the messiness of John’s beheading.

Fred said he wants to preach: Herod a Study in Cowardice. He picked up on a passage by C.S. Lewis about having a toothache as a child and not wanting to tell his mother. While she would give him the pain relief for the night that he desperately wanted, he also knew that in the morning she would take him to the dentist, and that was more than he wanted. Herod perhaps demonstrates the same when he listened to John.

Cliff told a story of an inmate he knew when he was working in prison. During a robbery he told the attendant to lie on the floor or he would shoot him. He only meant it as a threat to get the man to do as he was told. Latter in the robbery, however, the man sneezed, so the robber, wanting to keep his word in front of his two friends, popped him. Cliff asked him if he had to do that… he answered, “of course.”

Fred said, “Herod lost his head, so did John, but Herod also lost his soul.”

Cliff wondered if John didn’t confront Herod specifically to take himself off of the stage. “He must increase…” There was so much confusion between Jesus and John, (i.e. Some say he is John the Baptist raised from the dead. 6:14) the confusion lasted even after Jesus left earth. Perhaps his death was the only way to get his followers to focus on Jesus.

I wondered too, was John wrong about Jesus? His ministry was to prepare the way for the messiah. He baptized for repentance. He obviously saw Jesus’ ministry as that of judgment. Cliff suggested that his act of judgment was too force people to choose. (I have come to divide families, to bring a sword, not peace.)

John challenges my traditions view of Jesus’ ministry. If we only call people to salvation, to repentance, we only do what John did. If he only prepared the way for Jesus’ ministry, then His ministry must be more: reconciliation and real life. Discipleship!

Cliff said that our job is to help people become a part of the redemptive and redeemed people of God. Which brings us back to Ephesians. My people need to know who they are in Christ pretty desperately. For that alone, I will preach Paul’s wonderful statement of what God has done through Christ.

1. He chose us
2. He destined us for adoption
3. He lavished on us
4. He has made known to us